December 2* – December 17, 1965
Art Gallery, Eugenia Fuller Atwood Library
1965 BEAVER NEWS
“Tyler Faculty Exhibit Art Contemporary Culture Expressed” by Susan Wood
The sculpture, ceramics, prints and paintings by ten faculty members of Tyler currently showing in the library gallery through December 17, express topical statements concerning contemporary culture and art movements.
David Pease’s “A Walk in the Woods” is influenced by and comments upon our machine age, for the artist creates an abstraction that precisely defines mechanistic forms – the colors of a traffic light, the white expanse of concrete, the shapes of railroad signals – plus those of nature. Even the trees are stylized and exactly placed. Everywhere is evidence of man’s intrusion upon the natural world. Romas Viesulas’ print “The Cage” also utilizes mechanistic forms, but in a more abstruse way.
“Wake” and “The Centaur,” forceful black, white and grey chalk drawings by Charles LeClair, reveal gripping emotion of a more universal comment. Their impact is founded in sure draftsmanship that is expanded in terms of abstraction which transforms the drawing into a monumental picture and makes a futile grasping for a dead loved one, or a struggle from suppression, more meaningful. With Leon Golub this power and drama of an expressive line is represented by brush strokes in a “Struggle.”
In “Gentian Rain” and “Inner Blue” Roger Anliker creates through a complicated watercolor technique of subtle color relationships and undulating movement, two different moods. The primary concern is with color, whether the gentle, sunny hues of flowers and sun, or the sombre blue and browns of a seemingly prehistoric landscape. “Screen Impression,” a print by Arthur Fiory, is also involved with elusive color changes.
The ceramic bowls of Rudolph Staffel and the freestanding stone (“The Pelican–”) and wood (“Jonah”) sculptures of Adolph Dioda having interesting tactile qualities.
Raphael Sabatini’s “Lachrymal” restates a centuries-old iconography – that of the deposition of Christ – in thoroughly modern terms of welded scrap metal and glass, and still relates the poignancy of the event.
It is fitting to sum up the show with the three paintings of “Susie Q” by Rik Van Bentum, for the artist depicts in the “Pop” style all the garish vulgarity of our present culture in wild colors and cheesy poses. But perhaps his sense of humor is focused not on us but on Pop Art itself. In any case, this is a definitely current artistic statement.
* Date is estimated.
